Realizing this, Kakashi made a snap decision.
He dispersed the chakra he had been gathering in his right hand for a close-range Chidori.
He leapt backward decisively, moving to a safer location.
Inside the Hiruko puppet, Sasori watched the Uchiha boy who had just unleashed the Water Dragon lead the people in the cave farther away.
Sasori laughed suddenly.
"Hatake Kakashi, do you really think that by holding me back, they'll escape?"
Kakashi's expression hardened.
"Your target right now is me."
To Kakashi, his comrades' lives always came first.
He chose to bear this pressure alone.
But he had misjudged the situation.
Sasori had not felt the urge to laugh like this even once in the past year.
Patiently, he explained, "Thanks to the Konoha, my parents died at the hands of the Konoha's White Fang, Hatake Sakumo."
Kakashi's expression changed drastically.
For the first time, a flicker of guilt and embarrassment appeared in his eyes.
Just now, Yujin had hinted to him that the Sasori had transformed himself into a puppet.
Kakashi's pupils constricted. Could it be that the source of this came from his own father?
Sasori did not speak to Kakashi about the pain of losing his parents at a young age.
He manipulated Hiruko. The mechanism on its left arm suddenly erupted, firing a cannon.
On the cannon, more than a dozen cylinders loaded with poison needles were mounted.
With a chilling mechanical roar, they shot outward in all directions!
Almost simultaneously, the hidden poison needles inside the cylinders swarmed out like a hive of angry bees.
They shot relentlessly toward Kakashi, crisscrossing and forming a deadly net, completely blocking his escape routes.
The wide-ranging assault left Kakashi barely any time to react.
With a sharp whistle, several thousand needles pierced his right arm and back.
Kakashi groaned, his body wobbling slightly.
Seeing this, Sasori let out a cold snort.
He manipulated the Hiruko puppet again. The massive hooked tail lashed forward like black lightning toward what appeared to be an empty space.
At that moment, something strange happened.
The "Kakashi" that had just been struck by the needles instantly melted into a puddle and quietly vanished.
In the next instant, the real Kakashi emerged, holding Chidori, bursting through the ground!
The path he needed to take was exactly where the Hiruko tail hook had struck.
Kakashi activated his Mangekyō Sharingan. Alarmed, he twisted his body, relying almost purely on instinct.
His right hand blazed with the blue-white light of Chidori as it clashed against the tail hook!
A flash of blinding electricity erupted. The powerful current and impact sent Kakashi skidding aside.
He dropped to one knee, supporting himself with his right hand, gasping for breath.
Pain shot through his hand.
Looking down, he saw his right hand's back turning a dark blue and purple—clearly poisoned.
At the same time, the Hiruko's tail, unable to withstand the force of Chidori, snapped with a loud crack.
From the broken tail, someone slowly emerged.
His face was cold and stern—the Sasori, frozen at the age of fifteen.
Seeing Sasori's true body, Kakashi's expression grew grave.
Pulling out the real Sasori was like a low-level player entering a dungeon far above their current level.
Defeating the first stage of the boss was not necessarily a good thing.
Rain fell heavily, shrouding the world in mist. The only sound in the quiet was the steady patter of raindrops.
Sasori stood atop a high ground, his eyes sharp and cold.
He slowly drew out a summoning scroll from behind him, forming hand signs and chanting quietly.
With an eerie flash of light, the puppet of the Third Kazekage appeared before Kakashi with an imposing presence!
The Third Kazekage puppet radiated a deadly aura. The moment it appeared, Sasori controlled it to unleash the power of Magnet Release.
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand Giant Needles!"
In an instant, the surrounding sand seemed to respond to a mysterious call, rising into the air and forming countless enormous, sharp iron sand needles.
Under the force of Magnet Release, they shot like arrows toward Kakashi.
Kakashi's eyes narrowed. He activated his Sharingan in one eye, the crimson gaze tracking the incoming iron sand needles.
With the enhanced dynamic vision of the Sharingan, his body moved like lightning.
He dodged left and right, relying on perfect timing to narrowly evade the ferocious attack.
But Sasori would not stop there.
His fingers danced, manipulating chakra threads—almost invisible in the rain, glinting faintly.
They tightly connected him to the Third Kazekage puppet.
With a slight flick of his fingers, the puppet suddenly raised the large, poisonous blade glowing with an eerie green light and lunged fiercely toward Kakashi!
Kakashi knew the danger was immense. He retreated rapidly while forming hand seals, desperately seeking an opening to counterattack.
But the puppet controlled by Sasori was too fast. The deadly blade cut through the air with unstoppable force, slashing downward.
Just as the blade was about to strike Kakashi's body, there was a loud bang, and his figure vanished into a wisp of white smoke in an instant.
Sasori showed no hint of panic. He stopped the puppet, and his eyes, hidden beneath the hood, swept coldly across the surroundings.
Kakashi had taken cover behind the thick trunk of a large tree, his back pressed tightly against the bark, gasping for air.
He looked down to see the poison spreading like creeping vines across his forearm. The healthy skin had turned a sickly bluish-purple, and a sharp, piercing pain shot through him, making him frown in agony.
At that moment, Sasori's voice rang out mockingly across the area: "Kakashi, you're already dying from my poison. Why not become a puppet? Eternal life, never decaying—that is true art!"
Gritting his teeth, Kakashi refused to respond. He clenched his pain and pondered a way to fight back.
Before he could devise a plan, Sasori's hands moved rapidly, forming seals. He controlled the Third Kazekage's puppet to unleash an even more powerful jutsu!
The surrounding sand and soil twisted under the force of magnet release. In the blink of an eye, magnetic sand-iron prisms and cylinders materialized, flying straight toward Kakashi!
They gleamed with a cold metallic light, their forms terrifying against the backdrop of rain, slicing through the downpour as they surged forward.
Kakashi, hearing the threat, refused to slacken even a fraction. Ignoring the sharp pain in his arm, he quickly formed a hand seal and shouted, "Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!"
Chakra flowed into the ground, and a thick earthen wall rose up, standing firmly between him and the deadly sand-iron attacks.
A dull, heavy crash followed as the prisms and cylinders smashed into the wall, sending dust and debris flying. Fortunately, the wall held strong, temporarily halting the assault.
Kakashi let out a brief sigh of relief, but his relief was short-lived. He realized in horror that the sand-iron prisms and cylinders had maneuvered in midair, circumventing the wall and barreling relentlessly toward him again.
Alarm surged through him. He moved immediately to form a seal for another defensive jutsu, but as his hands began the sequence, a sharp, burning pain shot through his arm.
The poison flared violently, racing up to his chest, interrupting his motion and breaking the hand seal.
Kakashi stared at the incoming sand-iron attacks, his eyes flashing with determination yet tinged with helplessness. In that instant of life and death, he found himself trapped with no way out.
Just as the danger reached its peak, a shadow streaked across from the side like lightning!
The rain was stirred violently by the sudden, high-speed movement, splashing outward in all directions and forming a curtain of white water droplets.
When the figure finally came into view, it was Uchiha Yujin.
His posture was agile and commanding, exuding an unstoppable aura.
At that moment, his right fist was enveloped in a dense layer of black Armament Haki, making it seem as if his punch had transformed into the hardest weapon in existence.
His left leg bent slightly at the knee, similarly shrouded in Armament Haki.
Without hesitation, Uchiha Yujin swung his right fist, striking violently at the incoming Magnet Release Iron Sand cylinder.
A resounding bang echoed through the air.
The previously unstoppable cylinder was forcefully sent flying, arcing through the sky before crashing into the distant mud, splashing dirt and water everywhere.
Uchiha Yujin shifted his stance, and his left leg shot up like a deadly war axe toward the following Magnet Release Iron Sand Triangular Cone.
His toes struck the tip of the cone with pinpoint accuracy.
Another crisp impact rang out as the cone was sent spinning into the air like a kite cut from its strings, tumbling far away before hitting the ground.
In an instant, the dire situation was completely turned around by Uchiha Yujin's two commanding moves.
Rainwater ran down his face.
He shook his head slightly, flicking the rain-soaked strands of hair from his forehead, then looked toward Kakashi, a hint of a mischievous smile curling at his lips.
"Sorry I'm late, Kakashi-sensei," he said.
Kakashi's eyes widened, frozen in shock, as if he had just seen a ghost.
****
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